Let Your Hair Down
by feed-the-birdss
Summary: James and Lily are in their seventh year at Hogwarts, and the stress of needing to be the perfect muggleborn Head Girl has been getting to Lily lately.


**Authors Note: This story is based on the song "Let Your Hair Down" by the band MAGIC!. Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: Anything you recognize isn't mine.**

"I'll see you later. I have a meeting with McGonagall," murmured Lily as she got up from the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall leaving a half-eaten plate of her lunch. Just as she was about to walk away from the table, James grabbed her hand and looked at her with furrowed brows and a concerned look in his eyes.

Lily paused and looked back at him with a small smile as she gave his hand a squeeze with hers, making James' expression soften in response, and she used her free hand to gently run her fingers through his hair unruly messy black hair as she walked past him to exit the Hall.

James watched her long red ponytail swing back and forth as she walked away from him with a dumb look on his face. All he could think was "there she goes, there she goes". To him, there's nothing better than her.

However, James' train of thought about his beautiful woman was quickly interrupted when Sirius, who was sitting across from him, smacked him over the head. "OI!" yelled James to Sirius, "what the bloody Hell was that for!?"

"You looked like a fool just staring after her Prongs," lectured Sirius as he continued to shovel food into his mouth.

"Whatever mate," muttered James with a scowl as he too proceeded to finish his meal.

"What's going on with her anyway?" asked Sirius before gulping down the rest of his pumpkin juice and wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. "She seems more stressed out than usual. Remus agrees."

James sighed and pushed his plate of unfinished food away from him, "Yeah, apparently Mulciber's dad, who's on the Board, asked Dumbledore to remove her as Head Girl all because of some dumb ass uniform infraction he noticed when he came to the school last week. Dumbledore refused, obviously, but still…"

"The fuck!? That's Bullshit. Every sodding student wears their uniform wrong. It's a rite of passage for any poor bloke or bird who's forced to wear this ridiculous monkey suit," he hollered. "They can't honestly expect us to have our top buttons done up all the time!? It's a fucking death trap. I feel like I am going to choke whenever it's done up," ranted Sirius. "But Lily's uniform is always near perfect though!? I don't think I've ever seen her with her top button undone…fuck, how on earth does she manage that," he paused. "Small neck must be. Do you know what he said was wrong?"

"Fucking prick said her shirt was wrinkly, and that her kilt was an inch above the approved kilt length," fumed James as he turned around with clenched fists to look at Mulciber chortling with his friends at the Slytherin table.

"WHAT!?" bellowed Sirius causing many heads to look in their direction and for Professor Flitwick to throw them a warning look. "Kilt length. That cunt is attacking Kilt length!? They'll have to kill me before I let the misogynist villains on the board try to actually regulate Kilt length! If a bird wants to show off her arse, who the fuck are they to stop her?"

"I know, mate, but now Lily's not only all worried about being the perfect Head Girl, but also making sure she looks perfect too."

"Well shit, they actually got to her?"

"I mean, she says she doesn't care what Mulciber's dad thinks of her, but she loves being Head Girl, and she sees the difference she's making with the other muggleborns in the school. So she's refusing to let herself give Mulciber's dad, or any of the Slytherins really, any excuse to call for her removal, and that has added a Hell of a lot of pressure on her,

'Like, I've never seen her wear a ponytail as often as she does now. This morning she actually steamed her school shirt, and worst of all," sighed James with hunched shoulders, "she almost didn't want to risk sleeping in the same bed last night."

"Well I'm sure you did a good job of convincing her not to do that, right Prongs?" asked Sirius with a smirk.

James smirked back, and his eyes started to glaze over as if reliving a memory, "maybe."

"Good man," congratulated Sirius while reaching over the table to give James two pats on the back, "and now, we leave to meet Moony at the greenhouses," he declared as he grabbed James' collar to drag him to the greenhouse with him.

A few hours later, James was strutting down an empty corridor with his broom hung over his shoulder sporting his red and gold practice quidditch robes. Just then, he saw Lily turn a corner at the opposite end of the corridor.

She stopped once she saw him, surprised. He, on the other hand, quickened his pace.

"All right, Evans?" asked James with his customary smirk that brought Lily back to the days of when he used to ask her out repeatedly.

Lily started to walk toward him as well returning his smirk with one of her own, "I'm good Potter. You off to quidditch practice?"

"Yep," answered James once her finally reached her. He dipped his head so he could kiss her, but Lily swerved her head away.

"James, we can't. I don't want to get in trouble about kissing in public," fretted Lily as she quickly turned her head to look behind her and see if anyone saw. "Other students can't do it. So we can't either."

"Lils," he implored as he cupped her cheek softly with his broom-free hand, "there's no one around right now though."

"I know love, but I can't risk it right now," she warned with pleading eyes. She then carefully took his hand from her cheek and lightly kissed it before putting back beside him. "McGonagall warned me that the pureblood fanatics on the Board and the Slytherins are desperate to see me out because I've given a lot of the muggleborns here enough hope to stick around."

That's when James took a good look at her. His eyes moved over her from behind his spectacles, and he saw her polished black flats, her uniform approved grey socks ending just before her knees, he kilt exactly 5 inches above her knees, her crisp white shirt perfectly pressed with the top button done up, her red and gold tie tightly knotted against her collar, her black wrinkle-free robes, her perfectly groomed eyebrows, and her red hair slicked back into a perfect high ponytail hiding the waves he loves to run his fingers through.

He sighed. "You're right. I'm sorry. You know I didn't mean to risk that for you. I just love you."

"I know you do," she said with an appreciative smile.

"Just, if you can, please tell me when I can steal that kiss from ya, okay?" he smirked.

Lily rolled her eyes, but her smile still remained. "Anyway, you should head to practice Captain. I'll meet you after my rounds in our dorm." She then continued to head down the corridor.

After quidditch practice and his shower in the locker rooms, James went to his and Lily's dorm to finish up his homework and get started on the Prefect's schedule for next week.

When he heard the door opened he immediately looked up to see his beautiful girlfriend walk in with her red hair still done up in a tight ponytail.

"Hey," he smiled as he got up to greet her properly. Her words about kissing echoed in his head, but he figured that they were alone in their private dorms, the water is warmer here; so he grabbed her around the waist and dived right in putting his lips on hers.

To James' relief, he was met with no resistance. Lily's hands went straight for his messy hair, and when he started sucking on her bottom lip, she moaned in response. His lips then left hers to follow her jaw down to her neck and nip at the soft freckled skin there while his hands started travelling up from her waist.

However, he paused when his hands reached the back of her bare neck. James' lips broke away from her skin to look at her with an expression Lily couldn't quite place. So, Lily, the crazy girl she could sometimes be, stuck her tongue from out between her lips and licked James' face starting at his chin and reaching it as high as she could go.

"Ew Lils," cried James as Lily burst out into a fit of giggles. James started laughing too while wiping his face with the back of his hand, "what was that for?"

"You stopped," confessed Lily with the mischievous glint still in her green eyes. "I was just trying to get you out of your own fat head."

James chuckled, "Yeah, sorry. I was just thinking about your hair."

"My hair?" questioned Lily confusedly.

"Yeah, I mean, no one's here right now, and it's the end of the day, so we're not on the clock now either. I just thought that you could let your hair down, and that this moment is nice because of that fact," he said while his hands made their way back to her waist, and he started to dive once again.

He was met with resistance this time, however, as Lily turned her head and looked up at him confusedly. "Uhhhh…what? You don't like my hair up?"

"What!? No! It's not that at all. I love your hair all ways. I would love you even with no hair. I just meant it metaphorically," he paused, "okay, well no, I meant it literally too, but that's just because running my fingers through your hair is one of my favorite things to do. But like, in the metaphorical sense, you know, you're just so stressed and worried about needing to be perfect all the time because of Mulciber, so I just wanted to, like, talk to you about how you don't need to worry about being perfect with me. You can relax you know….let your hair down and stuff."

Lily just giggled and responded with, "you're such an idiot sometimes Potter." She then reached up her hand to pull the elastic band holding her ponytail out of her hair letting it fall down in the waves that James loved.

James hands immediately started to comb the soft strands relishing in the softness between his fingers with a victorious gleam on his face, and just as he was about to dive right back into their snog session once again, he was, once again, met with resistance as Lily swerved her head. "Oi!" he whined.

"Sorry Potter, we're gonna need to hold off on the snog session until later. We need to practice the Chicken Dance if you're coming with me to Petunia's wedding. I refuse to have a date who doesn't have the perfect technique for the most important wedding dance of all time," she declared as she grabbed her wand from her robes to move the furniture around and make room for their practice.

James just laughed but proceeded to indulge in her foolishness anyway. He knew that this dance wasn't that important and that Lily just wanted to make him look like a fool, but this was the best part of spending time with Lily when it just the two of them and she didn't have to worry about being the perfect Head Girl. They could be ridiculously in love as they were, and more importantly, they could be themselves.


End file.
